Friday 9 March 2012

The Wonder of the Weekend

Last weekend, I wrote a blog but I didn’t post it because it was (mostly) one big fat moan fest.

I moaned about having worked the entirety of the previous weekend and the depressing realisation that last weekend was going to be exactly the same because of the delights of marking thirty literacy skills books; thirty maths books; thirty big write books; maths planning; literacy planning; guided reading planning; preparation for presenting some important stuff at some important meeting and the epic pile of unorganised crap, which I’d left to fester for weeks because sorting it all out hadn’t reached the top of my priority list.

I moaned about the fact that even though I’m no longer an NQT and I have a new found efficiency (sort of) and proficiency (sort of) at my job, sometimes the to-do list is still so monumental that even if I work my ass off for the entire weekend with super-womanly efficacy, I’m still not adept enough to get an adequate amount done. Pantaloons!

(I did also mention why I do actually love my job and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Apart from being a housewife. Or professional card maker. Or florist).

HOWEVER, next week is Science Week. Science Week itself doesn’t fill me with much joy (I am dreading the inevitable failure of trying to get thirty four 5 – 11 year olds to make functioning balloon powered contraptions out of egg boxes), but it has a superbly positive effect on my planning situation for this weekend.

As the timetable is maxed out with science stuff, instead of having to do a week’s worth of literacy planning, maths planning and guided reading planning alongside my marking over the next two days, I only have to sort out four literacy lessons, which means that there is potential for some semblance of weekend. Alleluia!

To celebrate, our year group team ate a whole packet of plastic Norwegian cheese after school and a LOT of Belgian chocolate, which we keep in our cupboards for times of emergency/celebration. Then, we blu tacked some stuff to our classroom walls to make them look nice and had a bit of a lazy tidy up instead of stressing out over piles of books.

Tomorrow I’ll work, and I’ll probs end up doing some more on Sunday morning too (marking backlog) but I will definitely grant myself Sunday afternoon, free myself from the shackles of my desk and watch Saints-Scarlets and England-France guilt free. Being so busy so much of the time definitely makes me more grateful for time off. 

So, hoorah for Science Week and hoorah for small mercies!